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Feminism and Spirituality in Chitra Banerjee 1

Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions 2

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In "The Palace of Illusions" Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni rewrites "Mahabharata" from the female 4

perspective of Queen Panchaali, whose candid and moving first person narrative voice undermines 5

the stereotypical perception of women in the Indian culture. Divakaruni occupies the ambiguous 6

position of employing both the patriarchal and the feminist voices, thus combining the traditional 7

themes of Mahabharata with the polyphonic or dialogic postmodern modes of narration. The Palace 8

of Illusions implies that in order to reach social equality human beings must strive for spirituality; 9

it is only by shedding the masks of authority and social hierarchy that men and women connect as 10

authentic individuals. 11

12

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The monumental, Sanskrit epic poem Mahabharata is one of the spiritual 14

sources that have defined the values of the Indian society for thousands of years, 15

while shaping the nation’s cultural consciousness through the narrative’s 16

masculine voice and perspective. The patriarchal prerogative to narrate the story 17

shoved the poem’s female characters to a seemingly marginal role. As Chitra 18

Banerjee Divakaruni explains in the introduction to her novel The Palace of 19

Illusions, Mahabharata depicts several ‚powerful, complex women characters that 20

affected the action in major ways‛ (xiv). Yet these characters remain ‚shadowy 21

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figures, their thoughts and motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only 1

when they affected the lives of the male heroes‛ (xiv). The vague representation 2

of women’s emotions and thoughts in such an influential epic poem may have 3

prevented its readers from developing a realistic, multi-dimensional image of 4

women in general and of Queen Panchaali in particular. This lack of female voice 5

and perspective in the traditional text has pushed Divakaruni to rewrite the 6

ancient epic from the female perspective of Queen Panchaali, whose candid and 7

moving first person narrative voice undermines the stereotypical perception of 8

women in the Indian culture. When the narrator’s internal world becomes 9

transparent to the readers, they become aware of her motives thus reconsidering 10

the traditional assumption that the protagonist’s stubborn and vengeful character 11

was the main reason for the ‚destruction of the Third Age of Man‛ (Divakaruni 12

xiv). The Palace of Illusions demonstrates a complex, often ambiguous social 13

position of Queen Panchaali1 who is continuously restricted by the patriarchy, yet 14

manages to empower herself by manipulating the system through her rhetorical 15

talent. 16

Similarly, Divakaruni occupies the ambiguous position of employing both 17

the patriarchal and the feminist voices thus combining the traditional themes of 18

1 At birth Panchaali is named Draupadi, which means the daughter of King Drupad. In

this essay the names Draupadi and Panchaali will be used interchangeably. In the novel,

however, the name Draupadi is used to describe the younger Panchaali, before sage

Vyasa’s renaming, and before she has gained her royal power as the wife of Pandavas.

Panchaali is associated in the novel with the mature, much more empowered protagonist

than Draupadi whose social status is primarily defined through her father’s name.

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Mahabharata with the polyphonic or dialogic postmodern modes of narration. The 1

polyphonic narration described by Mikhail Bakhtin as simultaneous 2

interdependence and autonomy of various narrative voices enables Divakaruni to 3

integrate them into a complex fictional world in which women, and not only men, 4

can be the active agents of social change. The distinct voices of the novel which, 5

according to Bakhtin, ‚do not necessarily overpower each other, may remain 6

independent, while enriching each other through dialogue‛ (287). 7

Dialogic narration seems to be characteristic of women writers as Elaine 8

Showalter asserts, ‚women’s writing is always ‘bitextual,’ in dialogue with both 9

masculine and feminine literary traditions‛ (263). Since, according to Showalter, 10

‚there can be no writing < outside of dominant culture,‛ women’s writing and 11

feminist criticism is ‚necessarily a double voiced discourse embodying both the 12

muted and the dominant‛ (263). The dominant, patriarchal culture indeed serves 13

as the basis for Divakaruni’s imaginative endeavor of pouring her own 14

postmodern, feminist content into the ancient myth thus infusing them with the 15

interpretation that allows her to bridge between the Eastern and Western parts of 16

her literary heritage. 17

In her study ‚Dialogics of Self, The Mahabharata and Culture,‛ Lakshmi 18

Bandlamudi refers to Vygotsky’s theories claiming that ‚while the author intends 19

to convey certain messages, the readers, depending on their history and social 20

location, bring varied meanings to the text and subsequently transform the text‛ 21

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(8). This is exactly what Divakaruni achieves in The Palace of Illusions; by 1

employing Panchaali as the narrator of her novel, the author upholds the 2

feminist, liberal values thus transforming the traditional epic into a novel 3

accessible to her contemporary, Western audience. 4

Writing in English about the Indian mythology, Divakaruni has to take her 5

readers’ cultural perspective into consideration providing the necessary context 6

and explanations of rituals and practices that the Westerners might 7

misunderstand2. Divakaruni’s reinterpretation of the ancient epic enables the 8

Western audience to engage with the different and challenging perceptions of 9

time, fate, storytelling, reincarnation, individuality as well as social and gender 10

hierarchies. Yet Divakaruni’s goal is twofold – not only that she engages in a 11

process of cultural translation explaining the Indian culture and philosophy to the 12

English speaking readers, she also challenges the stereotypical perceptions of 13

women in the traditional Indian American culture. 14

By adjusting and reinterpreting those postulates of Mahabharata that 15

discriminate women, Divakaruni enables both herself, and her Indian American 16

readers, to reclaim their feminist values and beliefs as continuous with rather 17

than separate from their ethnic selves. The feminist spirit thus revives 18

Mahabharata for Divakaruni’s Indian American audience encouraging the liberal 19

women to reconnect to their history and religion. The Palace of Illusions can serve 20

2 She explains cultural terms like yagna fire, swayamvar (54), philosophical ideas such as

karma (58) and spiritual concepts of reincarnation and the afterlife (358).

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as a bridge between cultures and succeeding generations of Indian American 1

daughters who may experience a clash between the traditional values they are 2

encouraged to follow at home and the expectations of the American environment 3

that supports women’s self-expression and self-assertion3. 4

Moreover, since the Western readership may not be widely familiar with 5

Indian Mythology, the novel must provide the essence of the Sanskrit epic. While 6

Divakaruni’s challenge with the Indian American audience is to present a 7

convincing picture of Panchaali as a complex yet sympathetic character, the 8

American readers must be offered a two-sided picture of how Panchaali is both 9

originally represented in Mahabharata and how she is re-represented in the novel. 10

Throughout the novel, Divakaruni inserts translated portions of the original epic 11

into her text to enable the readers to compare Sage Vyasa’s descriptions of the 12

events with Panchaali’s first person narration as rendered by Divakaruni’s novel. 13

Thus, instead of battling against or trying to erase the patriarchal voice of the 14

sage, Divakaruni creates a polyphony of voices that supplement rather than 15

contradict each other. This dialogic representation of the traditional and the 16

liberal narrators creates a complex and realistic portrait of the Indian culture and 17

tradition. The forces of the present do not aspire to illuminate, but, rather, build 18

upon or engage with the forces of the past. Lakshmi Bandlamudi argues that even 19

though ‚Vyasa is the original author *of Mahabharata], the text is believed to have 20

3 For further discussion of cultural contradictions in Indo-American children see

Ghassarian.

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evolved over thousands of years, and it continues to evolve through the minds of 1

individuals living in heterogeneous cultural systems‛ (14-15). The Mahabharata is 2

such an intricate text that it ‚entices the readers into a creative play‛ landing itself 3

to multiple reinterpretations contingent with the readers’ socio cultural 4

background (15). 5

In the interviews of Indian American immigrants conducted by Bandlamudi, 6

about different characters and events described in Mahabharata ‚significant 67 7

percent of the subjects said that they either had no thoughts of Draupadi or they 8

did not care about her or even disliked her‛ (141). Even though Draupadi’s 9

character participates in all the major events of Mahabharata, she is not recalled4 as 10

a significant character worthy of deep contemplation and interpretation. In fact 11

she is not remembered as a heroine, but, rather, a slave to men’s whims (Zelliot 12

73). In her poem ‚Slave‛ Hira Bansode, ‚a major Dalit woman poet of Bombay‛ 13

(Zelliot 72) writes: 14

15

Where the doors are decorated with mango leaves 16

Where the houses are ornamented with little flaming oil 17

lamps 18

4 In the chapter entitled ‚Gendered Memories: The Heroine’s Journey in Time,‛

Bandlamudi poses several important questions: has Draupadi disappeared from the

memory storehouse, or was she never encoded in the memory to begin with‛ (141).

Another possible explanation for repressing Draupadi’s character might relate to the

‚problem of retrieval:‛ the Indian immigrant readers would rather repress her character

because remembering her would make them face some difficult questions of gender

hierarchy they would rather avoid (140).

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In that country a woman is still a slave 1

2

Where Sita entered the fire to prove fidelity 3

Where Ahilya was turned to stone because of Indra’s lust 4

Where Draupadi was fractured to serve five husbands 5

In that country a woman is still a slave 6

7

All the women mentioned in the poem, no matter how elevated their social or 8

spiritual ranks are, are expected to suffer for men and serve their needs. Zelliot 9

explains that ‚the one who enmeshes a woman in worldly life and strips away all 10

her independence, the one who imprisons her, is her husband (243). Thus, when 11

the poet writes: ‚Draupadi was fractured to serve five husbands‛ she emphasizes 12

Draupadi’s victimization. It is as if Draupadi’s character is erased from the 13

communal memory; her soul is shattered into five pieces to appease the 14

patriarchy. 15

Interestingly, it is Draupadi’s mother-in-law, Kunti, who insists on this 16

socially unacceptable arrangement. She orders her sons to equally split whatever 17

they brought home that day. Since one of the brothers, Arjun, happened to win a 18

wife, they split this ‚trophy‛ equally to obey their mother. From the feminist 19

point of view, it is difficult to see anything positive in this story. Draupadi is 20

objectified and humiliated – she is treated as a spoil of war rather than a human 21

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being. Yet, it seems that here, too, interpretation is in the eyes of the beholder; 1

Draupadi’s retrospective narrator later realizes that Kunti took advantage of her 2

own power as a mother in order to keep all the five brothers together and reduce 3

possible conflict between them. The mother-in-law manipulates the situation to 4

suit her need to protect her sons. It is possible to interpret the polyandry in a 5

positive light claiming that marrying five men would enable Draupadi to explore 6

all the facets of her identity. As Bandlamudi argues ‚Draupadi is both a deviation 7

from the ‘norm’ in her marriage to five men and a proof to the ‘norm’ that love 8

and understanding exist even in her type of polyandrous marriage‛ (152). 9

Nonetheless, it is also possible to claim that when considering the traditional, 10

lordly role of husbands in the Indian society, we could say that actually Draupadi 11

was five times more imprisoned in her marriage than an ordinary woman. Since 12

Draupadi is forced into polyandry, it’s difficult to see this social arrangement as 13

empowering; she is not remembered a symbol of women’s sexual liberty or as a 14

fully developed individual, but rather as a traditional, subservient housewife.5 15

Later in this article, I will show how Divakaruni, nevertheless, transforms her 16

protagonist’s unfortunate situation into an empowering one. Bandlamudi asserts 17

that in order to ‚wage the current gender battle< one has to ‘reclaim’ < and 18

‘reconstitute’‛ Draupadi’s as a complex, multi-layered character. Divakaruni’s 19

5 In the traditional Indian society the ideals of womanhood were reinforced by the Code of

Manu (1-200 AD), which defined women not as individuals with independent destinies

but in term of their roles as daughters, wives and mothers (Jaggi 221)

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project appears even more important in light of the comments about Draupadi’s 1

character as they appear in Bandlamudi’s study: ‚Draupadi does not qualify as a 2

character; she is defined (after a lot of reluctance) as a ‘clever’ woman who pulled 3

her husband out of a sticky situation, or a ‘helpless’ woman who is rescued by 4

Krishna, and her actions are somehow crucial to the story‛ (143). The subjects of 5

the study admit that Draupadi is trapped in a ‚no win‛ situation: ‚when she is 6

victimized she becomes nobody, and when she angrily responds to the 7

victimization she becomes arrogant‛ (148). While the heroes of the epic are 8

allowed to be vengeful6 and arrogant and are even praised for these qualities, 9

Draupadi, as a woman, is expected to have more patience (Bandlamudi 147, 144). 10

Even though Draupadi is born out of a holy fire along with her brother, only 11

he is glorified and remembered as a hero. Draupadi, on the other hand, is 12

objectified and her supernatural quality is nullified by the narrator of Mahabharata 13

when she is ‚‘won’ in the competition by the hero, Arjun, only to become a 14

‘common wife’ to all his brothers‛ (146). Several chapters into the novel, 15

Draupadi is ‚pawned in the dice game‛ (146) by the eldest husband, and when he 16

6 In Divakaruni’s novel Draupadi is described as someone who is infamously known for

her inability to restrain her anger. When her husbands take additional wives and

especially when she is publically humiliated by Duryodhan’s public attempt to disrobe

her, she curses the Kauravas and this lack of restraint eventually leads to the war that

ends the Third Age of Man. Draupadi’s behavior contradicts the patriarchal expectations

from women. According to Ghasarian, Indo American girls are expected to express anger

‚in a ‘female’ way -- by crying, for example. Only after having given birth and becoming a

mother may an Indian woman express anger – and even then, only occasionally, and on

condition that the anger is patently justified‛ (79).

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loses, she undergoes a public attempt to disrobe her. Bandlamudi shows that 1

although all the subjects remember the major role that Draupadi plays in the epic, 2

they claim that her character did not leave a major impression on them (146). 3

Draupadi is objectified and denied of agency; her character is flat and lifeless; she 4

is passive and voiceless victim of circumstances. As Bandlamudi puts it 5

‚Draupadi simply exists neither in space not in time. She is ‘homeless,’ so to 6

speak, not deserving any authorized cultural space‛ (149). Divakaruni’s gives this 7

character a voice and a proper home. Symbolically entitling her novel The Palace of 8

Illusions, the author implies that from now on Draupadi’s rightful place is 9

restored in an alternative history where this outstanding character finds a 10

spiritual home. 11

In order to reconstruct this complex protagonist and evoke the readers’ 12

identification and sympathy, Divakaruni adds imaginary details to the story that 13

would explain Draupadi’s motives and represent various facets of her character. 14

In The Palace of Illusions, Draupadi is finally developed into the complex character 15

that would leave a deep impression on the readers. Turning Draupadi into the 16

narrator of the novel, the author exposes the character’s mind allowing us to 17

uncover the character’s thoughts, emotions and motives thus boosting our 18

identification towards her. 19

In addition, Draupadi’s first person narration enchants the reader with the 20

stories she tells; some of them describe her own life and some describe the lives of 21

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others. For example, by telling the story of her discrimination by King Drupad, 1

the author makes us identify with the protagonist. In the beginning of the novel, 2

Draupadi appears to be quite individualistic and narcissistic; she asks her nurse, 3

Dhai Ma, to retell the story of her mysterious and unexpected birth from the holy 4

fire. The nurse’s story describes the sacrificial ceremony performed by King 5

Drupad in order to beget a son who would slay his enemy, Drona, and avenge his 6

pride. Yet along with the desired son, whom Drupad names Dhristadyumna, 7

Destroyer of Enemies, following her brother a girl also emerges from the fire. The 8

holy voices warn Drupad: ‚Behold, we give you this girl, a gift beyond what you 9

asked for. Take good care of her, for she will change the course of history‛ (5). In 10

spite of this dramatic announcement, Drupad names his daughter Draupadi, 11

which means the ‚daughter of Drupad‛ (5). Draupadi is fascinated by the 12

mysterious story of her birth, yet she is not satisfied with her name: ‚couldn’t my 13

father have come up with something a little less egotistic?‛ (5). The princess 14

answers to the name Draupadi for the time being, but also decides ‚that in the 15

long run, it would not do‛ and is determined to find ‚a more heroic name‛ in the 16

future (5). Even though the father expects her to follow the traditional, humble 17

role of a daughter and then a wife, the princess perceives herself as a hero who is 18

destined to change the future of her nation. Draupadi indulges in ‚mak*ing+ up 19

fancy names for herself: ‚Offspring of Vengeance,‛ or the ‚Unexpected One,‛ but 20

Dhai Ma’s voice quickly reminds her of the patriarchal world in which she lives 21

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calling her ‚the Girl who wasn’t Invited‛ (1). Thus although the nurse’s story of 1

Draupadi’s birth boosts the princess’ self-confidence, her later remark, which 2

reflects the patriarchal point of view, undermines the young woman’s self-3

assertion and independence. The storytelling also brings forward the nurse’s 4

character allowing her to connect to her genuine feelings while undermining the 5

established social order in which a marginalized servant is usually silenced by the 6

patriarchy. Dhai Ma’s authentic voice testifies for Divakaruni’s motivation to give 7

a voice to the powerless, marginal women who sometimes internalize the 8

patriarchal authority and even convey it to the next generation. 9

In The Contracts of Fiction Ellen Spolsky elaborates the feminist theorists’ 10

claim that texts could be used to do ‚public work‛ and have a ‚wider influence 11

on the cultures in which they circulate‛ (xiv). In her cognitive study of literary 12

texts Spolsky ‚advance*s+ the project of integrating cognitive and literary thinking 13

in pursuit of a way of explaining how fictions interact with other social contracts 14

in the interests of healthy stability or change as needed‛ (xxvi). According to 15

Spolsky, a literary work can be written as a response to social injustice in an 16

attempt, not necessarily consciously, to realign some aspect of social balance. In 17

The Palace of Illusions Divakaruni shows the complexity of feminist struggle in a 18

traditional society that sanctifies the hierarchal social relations not only between 19

men and women but also amongst the higher and lowly castes. Although 20

Mahabharata is a patriarchal text that reinforces the hegemony in which it was 21

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written, Divakaruni uses it as a platform to redefine the social and perhaps 1

religious premises. 2

Divakaruni does not hesitate to introduce the patriarchal, traditional voices 3

which women are expected to follow, yet, ironically, she introduces them through 4

one of the marginalized members of the patriarchal society – the female servant. 5

While outwardly Dhai Ma is careful maintaining the existing social order in the 6

palace (not allowing the princess to help in the kitchen, for instance) in fact the 7

close bond between the two women as well as the nurse’s storytelling 8

undermines both the patriarchy and the class/caste hierarchy. While Dhai Ma is 9

aware of the patriarchal limitations, Draupadi is optimistic regarding her ability 10

to change her fortune and therefore when Dhai Ma tells her about a famous sage 11

who can foretell her future, Draupadi convinces her nurse to accompany her to 12

the holy site. Dhai Ma is willing to cooperate with Draupadi’s secret mission 13

without the father’s consent thus helping her to undermine the patriarchal 14

authority that attempts to limit her freedom. The knowledge that the young 15

princess craves for, however, is not a pleasant one. The sage summons the spirits 16

who tell Draupadi she ‚will marry five greatest heroes of *her+ time,‛ and live in 17

the ‚most magical of palaces,‛ but will also ‚be remembered for causing the 18

greatest war of *her+ time‛ (39). After Draupadi hears that she is destined to 19

‚bring about the deaths of evil kings,‛ but also those of her children and her 20

brother and that ‚a million women will become widows because of *her+‛ she 21

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asks the sage to alter her fate, but he replies that ‚only a fool meddles in the Great 1

Design‛ and that the princess’ destiny is born of lifetimes of karma, too powerful 2

for him to change‛ (40). On the one hand the sage holds Draupadi responsible for 3

her future actions, but on the other hand her evil destiny is shown to derive from 4

her karma and so the protagonist’s responsibility is in fact limited. 5

Before she leaves the sage, Draupadi spots another figure: ‚the other – why, 6

he appeared to have an elephant’s head!‛ (41). This reference to Ganesha, one of 7

the central gods of Hindu pantheon, implies to the extension of Vyasa’s authority 8

and his connection to the spiritual realm. Later in the novel Draupadi realizes that 9

‚Vyasa knew *the history of her land+ first, dreaming it before it happened. They 10

say he chanted it to Ganesha, god of beginnings, who penned it down. (Was it 11

him I’d glimpsed under the banyan with his pendulous elephant head?)‛ (262) 12

she wonders. Draupadi’s destiny is thus predetermined not only by men, but by 13

gods themselves, yet she keeps pondering the mystery of the book of life: ‚how 14

could such a book be written before I’d lived the incidents it described? Did this 15

mean that I had no control over what was to happen?‛ (43) These questions 16

actually ‚inscribe‛7 the Western readers into Divakaruni’s text placing not only 17

the protagonist, but the readers, too, at the center of the interpretive act. As 18

Naomi Schor argues, interpretation should be viewed ‚not as something that is 19

7 Tzvetan Todorov, Gerald Prince and Jonathan Culler deal with the question of how ‚the

reader is ‘inscribed’ into the text, and by what shared conventions readers negotiate texts

and make sense of them (186 Lodge).

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done to fiction, but rather something that is done in fiction‛ (Schor in Lodge 187). 1

Divakaruni’s novel enables the simultaneous growth of the reader and the 2

protagonist as the latter traces Draupadi’s maturation process. 3

Throughout the novel Divakaruni gradually introduces the deterministic 4

concept of fate as prescribed by the Sanskrit religion. The idea that human beings 5

are destined to follow the karma determined by their previous reincarnations 6

might be strange and inconceivable for the Western, contemporary readers who 7

are raised to believe in the importance of free-choice and personal responsibility 8

for one’s fate. By accompanying Draupadi’s gradual realization that one cannot 9

escape her fate, and that every signification decision draws her closer to the 10

original destiny, the Western readers are taught to accept the mysterious notion 11

of karma thus expanding their cultural horizons. The readers of the Indian origin, 12

on the other hand, are taught to perceive Draupadi as a much more positive 13

character who followed her karma and therefore cannot be solely blamed for the 14

great evils of her time. 15

Crossing the boundaries of time and space Divkaruni’s retrospective first 16

person narrator freely moves between the different scenes of her life commenting 17

and explaining their significance to her readers. She repeatedly returns to the 18

scene of meeting Vyasa, the author of her life, whom she had mistaken for a 19

fortune-teller: 20

21

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I did not speak to the sage again for many years, though I heard of him from time to 1

time. I learned his name: Vyasa the Compendious<I would see him in the marriage 2

hall, seated on my father’s right, his placement revealing an importance I hadn’t 3

guessed at. He’d gaze at me, blinking mildly, as though he’s never seen me before. (43) 4

5

The utter control of the patriarchy becomes apparent when even Draupdi’s 6

rebellious act leads her to a spiritual patriarch revered by her father. While the 7

fictional Draupadi cannot rebel against Vayasa’s authority, Divakaruni can, yet 8

she chooses to do so only to a certain extent. Divakaruni is confident enough to 9

limit her authority as a writer in order to leave enough space for the ethnic 10

patriarchal voices and converse with them through Panchaali’s character. Rooting 11

her postmodern novel in its ethnic, mythological home, Divakaruni is committed 12

to the original plotline, but she can change the way the readers interpret the 13

characters’ intentions, emotions and thoughts. 14

When King Draupad decides to hold a competition, a swayamvar, to marry 15

his daughter off, Draupadi has the illusion that she will have the opportunity to 16

choose her husband. In fact, the competition is set in such a way that the 17

nobleman the king has chosen for his daughter has the greatest chance of 18

winning. When Draupadi complains about this to her brother, he replies that 19

‚fate will decide‛ (56) whom she is to marry. Nevertheless, the princess feels like 20

a ‚pawn for King Drupad to sacrifice when it’s most to his advantage‛ (58). 21

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Krishna, another central Hindu divinity, who serves as Draupadi’s mysterious 1

confidant also supports this marriage. He uses a rhetorical question to convince 2

the princess asking: ‚aren’t we all pawns in the hands of Time, the greatest player 3

of them all?‛ (58). Draupadi ponders about Krishna’s revelation thinking that she 4

is a ‚part of a larger political design that would affect the fate of Bharat‛ (59). Yet 5

she resolves to ‚approach the problem *of her authority+ aslant:‛ 6

7

No matter what my father’s intention, I could still make Arjun’s heart beat faster. I 8

could still influence how he thought. Perhaps Time was the master player. But within 9

the limits allowed to humans in this world the sages called, unreal, I would be a 10

player too. (59) 11

12

This quote reflects Divkaruni’s narrative strategy: the author, just like her 13

protagonist, approaches the problem of representing her ethnic roots from a 14

slightly different perspective. By describing the same mythological events, yet 15

changing the slant or the perspective, the contemporary author influences how 16

her reader thinks. Thus, while partially accepting the limitations of spiritual and 17

social hierarchies acceptable in Hinduism, Divakaruni attempts to change the 18

system from within showing their complexities through her characters’ female 19

perspectives. 20

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Moreover, Divakaruni also employs the patriarchal voices of the bards in 1

order to show the reasons for Draupadi’s misrepresentation and communal 2

repression by her people. The bards’ version of the swayamvar focuses mostly on 3

the heroes and misinterprets Draupadi’s intentions. The bards are mostly 4

concerned with the feelings of the heroes and make no effort to try and interpret 5

Draupadi’s mind. They describe how Draupadi humiliated Karna, the beloved 6

national hero, because she believed him to be of the lowly caste. Any 7

manifestation of personal authority is attributed to masculinity. For example, 8

when describing how Draupadi confronts Karna, the bards use heroic, masculine 9

terms as if to imply that only when a woman adopts masculine traits can she 10

challenge a warrior: 11

12

It was Draupadi, and as she spoke, she stepped between her brother and Karna, and 13

let fall her veil. Her face was as striking as the full moon after a cloudy month of 14

nights. But her gaze was that of a swordsman who sees a chink in his opponent’s 15

armor and does not hesitate to plunge his blade there. And every man in the 16

assembly, even as he desired her, thanked his fate that it was not he who stood 17

before her. (my emphasis 95) 18

19

In order to begin the metaphoric transformation into a male warrior 20

Draupadi lets her veil fall thus implying that the ordinary rules of modesty do not 21

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apply to her. Her face is compared to a celestial body to imply her high social and 1

spiritual status. By implying that Draupadi is a supernatural woman, the bards 2

allow her to bend the rules and resist a man: Draupadi’s gaze is compared to that 3

of a swordsman, a male warrior. The use of the masculine possessive pronoun 4

‚his‛ along with the phallic image of the blade complete Draupadi’s figurative 5

transformation into a male warrior. The bards also comment that no man in the 6

assembly is willing to confront this supernatural woman because her very 7

presence challenges their masculinity on the most basic level. To be humiliated by 8

a woman seems to be the highest insult as women, even when they are born of 9

fire, should not be able to resist men. 10

At the end of their narration, the bards add ‚but *Karna+ never forgot the 11

humiliation of that moment in full sight of all the kings of Bharat. And when the 12

time came for him to repay the haughty princess of Panchaal, he did so 13

hundredfold‛ (my emphasis 95). The bards’ judgmental, didactic approach 14

towards Panchaali encapsulated in the words ‚haughty princess‛ reflects the 15

traditional, patriarchal approach towards this character. Yet Divakaruni balances 16

this voice by presenting the princes’ assertive yet compassionate voice: ‚I don’t 17

blame the bards for what they sing. In a way, things occurred just as they describe 18

it. But in another way, they were completely different‛ (95). By exposing the 19

readers to Draupadi’s point of view we realize that she did her best in order to 20

avert what she perceived as an eminent, mortal danger to her brother: 21

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1

When Karna issued his challenge and my brother stepped forward with his hand on 2

his sword, a haze of panic blurred my vision. Something terrible was close to 3

happening. There was no one, other than I, who might be able to stop it. But what 4

should I do? I looked at Krishna hoping for direction<Behind him Vyasa frowned. 5

He had warned me of this moment, though my wheeling mind could not recall the 6

words. Hadn’t he said I’d be the cause of my brother’s death? (95-96) 7

8

Remembering Vyasa’s prophecy Draupadi is determined to stop the battle, 9

and so she asks Karna the question that she knows would hurt him most ‚the 10

only question that would make him lay down his bow‛ (96). In her retrospective 11

voice Draupadi realizes that she had made a mistake humiliating Karna: 12

13

When I’d stepped forward and looked into his face, there had been a light in it—call 14

it admiration, or desire, or the wistful beginnings of love. If I’d been wiser, I might 15

have been able to call forth that love and, in that way, deflect the danger or the 16

moment<But I was young and afraid, and my ill-chosen words (words that I would 17

regret all my life) quenched that light forever. (96-97) 18

19

Later in the novel, Karna becomes her husbands’ most dangerous enemy, and 20

neither he, nor any other man she is familiar with, dares to protect Draupadi at 21

the scene of her public humiliation at Kauravas’ court. After the eldest husband, 22

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Yudhisthir, loses his family’s palace, his kingdom as well as his brothers’ and his 1

own freedom while gambling, he is finally challenged to pawn Panchaali’s 2

freedom, and when he loses the game, Panchaali is dragged to court to be 3

observed by ‚a hundred male eyes burning through *her+‛ (191). Since according 4

to the laws of the land, ‚the wife is the property of the husband, no less so than a 5

cow or a slave,‛8 when Draupadi demands help from her husbands, all they can 6

do is to ‚sen*d her+ tortured glances‛ (191). Draupadi realizes that in ‚their minds 7

they were already Duryodhan’s vassals, chained by Yudhisthir’s word. That same 8

word had made *her+ Duryodhan’s property‛ (191). The sabha,9 just like the 9

swayamvar10 is a public event in which Panchaali is displayed and objectified, yet 10

eventually manages to regain authority and subjectivity. While at the swayamvar 11

she confronts a man who is in love with her, here she struggles against an enemy 12

whose goal is to humiliate her: 13

14

The worst shame a woman could imagine was about to befall me – I who had 15

thought myself above all harm, the proud and cherished wife of the greatest kings of 16

our time! Now they sat frozen as I struggled with Dussasan. (193) 17

18

8 Panchaali attempts to resist her fate by posing an alternative law: ‚If perchance a man

lost himself, he no longer had any jurisdiction over his wife,‛ but Duryodhan’s brother

Dussasan grabs her hair shouting that Duryodhan is her master now. 9 Assembly hall 10 A practice of choosing a husband from a list of assembled suitors

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22

At the time of great distress she conjures Krishna’s image who says ‚no one 1

can shame you…if you don’t allow it‛ (ibid 193). These empowering words return 2

the authority into Panchaali’s hands; she opens her eyes and realizes that a 3

miracle has happened – she ‚was still clothed, and Dussasan was on the floor in a 4

swoon‛ (194). Divakaruni invokes the bards to strengthen the reliability of the 5

first person narrator, yet this time she uses her own voice to narrate the story 6

from the bards’ point of view: 7

8

the bards sing of what occurred when Dussasan took hold of my sari to pull it away, 9

exposing my nakedness to all eyes. How more and still more fabric appeared until he 10

was exhausted with tugging. Was it a miracle? I don’t know. I had shut my eyes. My 11

body would not stop trembling though I willed it to. I clutched my sari with my 12

fists—as though I could save myself with this futile gesture. (192-3) 13

14

The narrator thus employs the perspective of the seemingly objective 15

observers to testify for miraculous events she has participated in, yet she does not 16

give up of her voice. By speaking through or perhaps for the bards, the narrator 17

regains her role as a subject that is capable of telling her own story. 18

Divakaruni further empowers her protagonist by emphasizing Dussasan’s 19

defeat describing how Panchaali steps over her perpetrator and curses the 20

Kauravas: 21

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1

All of you will die in a battle that will be spawned from this day’s work. Your 2

mothers and wives will weep far more piteously than I’ve wept<.Not one Kaurava 3

heir will be left to offer prayers for the dead. All that will remain is the shameful 4

memory of today, what you tried to do to a defenseless woman. (my emphasis 194) 5

6

While at the swayamvar the bards describe Draupadi as a male warrior, here 7

the first person narrator describes herself as a defenseless woman, so ironically 8

the queen uses the social perception of women as the weaker sex for her own 9

benefit. She misleads her audience by making them identify with her as a 10

powerless person who needs protection by publically shaming her husbands for 11

failing to provide this defense. Divakaruni empowers Draupadi’s character by 12

enabling her to tell her own version of the events and represent herself through 13

her narrative in the way she feels comfortable with. 14

At the end of the sabha Draupadi also ensures that her husbands avenge her 15

honor through a public oath she makes: 16

17

I lifted up my long hair for all to see. My voice was calm now because I knew that 18

everything I said would come to pass. ‚I will not comb it,‛ I said, ‚until the day I 19

bathe it in Kaurava blood.‛ (194) 20

21

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Draupadi uses her femininity to establish a new honor code. She no longer 1

needs her husbands to swear they will avenge her; she decides to do it herself. 2

Knowing that ‚their own notions of honor, of loyalty toward each other, of 3

reputation were more important to them than [her] suffering, (195) she uses the 4

public eye and her femininity to guarantee vengeance. Her long hair becomes a 5

symbol of their revenge, and it will remain unwashed as long as a daily reminder 6

of her husbands’ shame. 7

Draupadi’s voice becomes so powerful that she manages to frighten the old, 8

blind king Dhritarashtra (Daussasin and Duryodhan’s father) who returns her 9

husbands’ kingdom and freedom to avert the curse. Yet, to Draupadi’s horror, 10

Duryodhan tricks Yudhisthir into another game where the loser would be 11

banished to the forest for twelve years. In spite of Panchaali’s pleas Yudhisthir 12

agrees to play and loses again. As a result, the five brothers are banished to the 13

forest and Draupadi follows them as a living reminder of their promise; in the 14

forest she keeps reminding the brothers of their mistakes and encourages them to 15

plan their revenge properly (197). 16

Even though Draupadi realizes her five sons needed her more than her 17

husbands, she prefers to leave them with her loyal nurse and servant Dahi Ma, so 18

in fact the children grow up separately from their mother (197). Draupadi 19

sacrifices her mothering realizing that ‚vengeance *is+ encoded in her blood‛ 20

(195). 21

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1

All this time I’d thought myself better than my father, better than all those men who 2

inflicted harm on thousand innocents in order to punish the one man who had 3

wronged them. I’d thought myself above the cravings that drove them<When the 4

moment came I could not resist it.‛ (195) 5

6

The queen’s complex character challenges the stereotypical social distinctions 7

between men and women. Divakaruni is taking a stand against the double 8

standards for the two sexes acceptable in the patriarchal cultures. While in the 9

Indian culture women are expected to be more patient and modest than men, 10

Draupadi shows that these perceptions are irrelevant and artificial. She refuses to 11

follow social expectations and perceives herself as her husbands’ equal following 12

them wherever they go proving to the world that women are as powerful as men. 13

Vyasa himself finally acknowledges Draupadi’s elevated status when right 14

before the great war between Kauravas and Pandavas he presents Draupadi with 15

a gift of special vision that will enable her to ‚see the most important parts of the 16

battle from afar‛ (254). The queen is excited ‚trying to encompass the 17

enormousness‛ of Vyasa’s proposal: ‚I, a woman, to view what no woman and 18

few men – had ever observed‛ (254). Vyasa asks Draupadi if she is brave enough 19

to tell others what really happened during the battle because ‚ultimately, only the 20

witness – and not the actors – knows the truth (254). The sage admits he first 21

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offered this present to the blind king, the father of her enemies, who refused to 1

see his sons ‚reap the fruits of their actions‛ (254). So even though Draupadi is 2

not his first choice, he believes she is even more courageous than any other man 3

and can endure the suffering of observing the battle in order to retell it to the 4

following generations. Thus Vyasa not only entrusts Draupadi with the role of the 5

observer, but also with the role of the storyteller; while he takes it upon himself to 6

write the story, she is expected to tell it. 7

The Western readers of the novel might interpret this proposition as an 8

attempt to avoid acknowledging Draupadi’s talent in writing. Evidently, only 9

Vyasa’s name will be remembered and revered throughout generations while 10

Draupadi will be perceived as the loyal wife at best. Nonetheless, Draupadi’s oral 11

storytelling can be interpreted as subversive and even revolutionary11 because the 12

Indian culture sanctifies the oral tradition reserving it for men only. In India the 13

oral recitation of Rig Veda is considered to be a sacred activity which must not be 14

performed by ‚unbelievers and infidels, untouchables and women‛ (O’Flaherty 15

57). Women are excluded from the privileged group of those who are allowed to 16

‚learn Sanskrit, the sacred language, because they might defile or injure the magic 17

11 Interestingly, female authorship is not foreign to the Indian culture. According to Maya

Jaggi, women have traditionally been storytellers in the subcontinent, the chief upholders

of and contributors to a powerful oral tradition which embraces myths, legends, fables,

folklore and songs stretching back millennia. The area’s ancient literature begun by

gathering and transcribing much of the accumulated, though anonymous, wisdom of

orature (oral literature)< The epics were spread through local versions (including one by

a woman, the Molla Ramayana by Mollati, in the 16th century) (221).

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power of these words‛ (O’Flaherty 57). Thus when Divakaruni describes 1

Draupadi as the voice of history, she rebels against the social constraint that 2

excludes women from sacred oral traditions thus showing that a woman can be 3

an integral part and even a source of oral narration. While Vyasa is using the 4

written medium of the Holy Scriptures, Draupadi will be the storyteller whose 5

oral narration conveys the message to the common people thus introducing them 6

to their own history. 7

While in the West, oral narration is perceived as fluid, unstable and even 8

unreliable, in the Indian tradition, the oral recitation of Rig Veda12 hymns is 9

‚preserved with meticulous accuracy. The Rig Veda is regarded as a revealed 10

text<It was memorized in a number of mutually reinforcing ways, including 11

chanting in a group, which does much to obviate individual slippage‛ 12

(O’Flaherty 58). Although it is conveyed orally from one generation to another, 13

Rig Veda’s meaning is inherently frozen and does not lend itself to multiple 14

interpretations. Mahabharata, on the contrary, is ‚so extremely fluid‛ that there are 15

‚hundreds of different manuscripts and innumerable oral versions‛ of this epic 16

poem, which ‚is constantly retold and rewritten both in Sanskrit and in 17

vernacular dialects‛ (O’Flaherty 59). Mahabharata is thus a unique text that 18

12 ‚India has two sorts of Sanskrit classics, typified by two great texts, the Rig Veda and

the Mahabharata. The Rig Veda is a massive collection of hymns< [that] was preserved

orally for over three thousand years‛ (O’Flaherty 57).

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transfuses the oral and the written mediums by representing the oral, fluid 1

narration through its written text. 2

In Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature, Maya Jaggi claims that it is possible 3

to generalize that South Asian ‚women’s writing<has tended to share a 4

preoccupation with interrogating and challenging the traditional roles assigned to 5

women dismantling the mythology to make space for other identities, within the 6

family or wider society‛ (225). It seems that in The Palace of Illusions Divakaruni 7

achieves just that by challenging the traditional forms of femininity and 8

presenting alternative sources of power for both traditional and liberal Indian 9

woman. By reinterpreting Mahabharata Divakaruni presents an alternative female 10

voice – the voice of a historian, a storyteller, a writer who claims her authority 11

from the patriarchal culture.13 Although Vyasa has already written Draupadi’s 12

story thus seemingly sealing her destiny, Divakaruni’s novel brings her back into 13

the communal consciousness in order to recover the female authority and 14

redefine women’s role in the traditional Indian society. 15

As Susan Snaider Lanser suggests in Fictions of Authority ‚the novel is a 16

cultural enterprise that has historically claimed and received a truth value beyond 17

the fictional‛ (7). Divakaruni’s novel aims to reform the traditional patriarchal 18

attitudes, yet instead of ridiculing and rejecting authority and tradition she 19

recruits it to achieve her purpose. By infusing the ancient myths with 20

13 ‚Self authorization<is implicit in the very act of authorship‛ (Lanser 7).

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postmodern, feminist perspectives, Divakaruni draws both from the female oral 1

narrative strategies and the traditional, religious texts written by men thus 2

creating a text that leads the readers to transcend the biological, social and 3

cultural differences between men and women and move to the spiritual realm 4

where these distinctions do not exist. 5

In the end of the novel, Panchaali chooses to follow her husbands into a 6

spiritual journey that will eminently lead to their death. After the five Pandavas 7

win the war and destroy all their enemies, they restore themselves as the kings of 8

their land. They finally bequeath the throne to their only surviving grandson, 9

Pariksit, and then realize that ‚their lives’ purpose is over;‛ they had ‚rendered 10

themselves unnecessary‛ and therefore decide that the time has come for them all 11

to die (340) on ‚the path they were to follow, up into the secret recesses of 12

Himavan14‛ (343). Panchaali emphasizes that ‚no woman had ever attempted‛ 13

this journey and all her relatives, including her husbands, attempt to persuade 14

her to stay, but as the queen testifies for her own character: 15

16

the more people dissuaded me, the more determined I became. Perhaps that has 17

always been my problem, to rebel against the boundaries society has prescribed for 18

women. But what was the alternative? To sit among bent grandmothers, gossiping 19

and complaining, chewing on mashed betel leaves with toothless gums as I waited 20

14 King of mountains in the Indian mythology

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for death? Intolerable! I would rather parish on the mountain. It would be sudden 1

and clear an end worthy of bard-song, my last victory of the other wives. (343-344 2

my emphasis) 3

4

In seems that Panchaali’s victory lies in winning the competition against 5

other women and being recognized by the bards: ‚She was the only consort that 6

dared accompany the Pandavas on this final, fearsome adventure. When she fell, she did 7

not weep, but only raised her hand in brave farewell‛ (sic 344). The bards’ words are 8

smoothly integrated into Panchaali’s narration as she adds ‚How could I resist 9

it?‛ (344). At this instance, Panchaali is not threatened by the bards’ patriarchal 10

narration; on the contrary, she welcomes their voices (not just their perspective) 11

employing them to record herself on the pages of the national history. 12

Even though it might seem that Divakaruni cooperates with the patriarchy; in 13

the final pages of the novel she draws a completely different, spiritual and 14

transcendent picture in which she describes her character’s ascend to the world of 15

spirits: ‚the air was full of men – but not men exactly, not women, for their bodies 16

are sleek and sexless and glowing‛ (358). The social boundaries disappear and 17

when she sees Karna, her life-long enemy and secret love, she realizes that she 18

can finally ‚take his arm in view of everyone<and embrace him with all 19

*her+self‛ (359). For the first time, Panchaali feels complete, free and boundless: 20

‚I’m beyond name and gender and the imprisoning patters of ego. And yet, for 21

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the first time, I’m truly Panchaali‛ (360). Divakaruni describes the protagonist’s 1

liberation as a process in which she sheds the social masks that defined her status 2

in society in order to become herself. Yet she also has to cast away her ego and 3

individuality in order to blend with her beloved Karna and subsequently with 4

other spirits: ‚I reach with my other hand for Karna – how surprisingly solid his 5

clasp!...We rise; the shapes cluster around us in welcome, dissolving and forming 6

and dissolving again like fireflies in a summer evening‛ (360). This spiritual, and, 7

at the same time physical, concrete description of human bonding, emphasizes 8

the beauty, and yet futility, of human existence. Our lives are short, yet dazzling 9

like those of fireflies and we bond and detach repeatedly as we form our existence 10

on earth. 11

Through the novel Divakaruni repeatedly uses the metaphor of a play to 12

describe human destiny. In the end of the novel, Krishna reassures her saying that 13

she ‚did what [she] was supposed to. Played *her+ part perfectly‛ (358). It is 14

possible to argue that if we are nothing but actors in a great play, who cannot 15

change their destiny, then discriminated social groups, and women among them, 16

must accept their fate and live according to the prescribed social values. Yet 17

Divakaruni poses an alternative view according to which patriarchy is temporary 18

and belongs to the physical, material world. While throughout our lives we are 19

confined to our bodies, personalities and social environments that define our 20

behavior as men and women, in the afterworld these artificial boundaries become 21

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meaningless. Authentic, spiritual existence implies absolute freedom and equality 1

that allows for the different, much more transcendent, egalitarian and liberal 2

kinds of bonding. Divakaruni’s text implies that in order to reach social equality 3

human beings must strive for spirituality; it is only by shedding the masks of 4

authority and social hierarchy that men and women connect as authentic 5

individuals. 6

7

8

References 9

10

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: U of 11

Minnesota P, 1984. 12

Bandlamudi, Lakshmi. Dialogics of Self, The Mahabharata and Culture: The History of 13

Understanding and Understanding of History. London: Anthem Press, 2011. 14

Divakaruni, Banerjee Chitra. The Palace of Illusions. New York: Anchor Books, 2009. 15

Ghasarian, Christian. ‚Education and Its Consequences: Value Conflicts in an Immigrant 16

Community.‛ Social Education. 59.2 (1995):78-8. 17

Jaggi, Maya. ‚The Indian Subcontinent‛ The Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature. Ed. 18

Claire Buck. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1992. 19

Lanser, Susan Sniader. Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice. Ithaca and 20

London: Cornel UP, 1992. 21

Lodge, David. Poetics Today 3.1 (1982): 185-89. Web. 22

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O’Flaherty, Doniger Wendy. Other Peoples’ Myths: The Cave of Echoes. Chicago: U of 1

Chicago Press, 1995. 2

Shor, Naomi. ‚Fiction as Interpretation, Interpretation of Fiction.‛ The Reader in the Text: 3

Essays on Audience and Interpretation. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980. 4

Showalter, Elaine. ‚Feminists Criticism in the Wilderness‛ The New Feminist Criticism: 5

Essays on Women, Literature and Theory. Ed. Elaine Showalter. New York: Pantheon 6

Books, 1985. 7

Zelliot, Elianor. ‚Stri Dalit Sahitya: The New Voice of Women Poets.‛ Images of Women in 8

Maharashtrian Literature and Religion. Ed. Anna Feldhaus. Albany: State U of New 9

York Press, 1996. 10